Worst Americans? I Think Not.

I watched CNN’s webcast of the GOP presidential debate in South Carolina last night. Impuissant moderator John King incurred Newt “I’m a Whiny, Repugnant, Hypocritical Windbag who Oozes Arrogance from Every Pore” Gingrich’s indignant wrath right off the bat by opening the debate with a question about the claim made yesterday by Gingrich’s second wife, Marianne, that he wanted an “open marriage” so he could invite his then-mistress, Callista, who became his third wife, into their bed.

On one hand, I agree that there are more pressing issues on which to focus. On the other hand, I remember when the rabidly partisan, controversial, holier-than-thou Georgia congressman – against whom 84 separate ethics charges were filed during his reign as Speaker of the House – led the effort to impeach Bubba Clinton for marital infidelity back in 1998. It’s amazing what some politicians try to get away with given the short memory of some voters.

I got tired of the four candidates slamming and demonizing the POTUS – Gingrich called him a “Saul Alinsky radical who’s incompetent” and Robotron Romney accused him of turning America into an “entitlement society” – and since there seem to be more GOP debates scheduled this political season than there are needles on a pine tree, I’m sure I’ll have additional opportunities to write about these pandering clowns.

So I decided to write instead about a link someone posted in Facebook the other day to a story at Buzzfeed.com entitled, “The 40 Absolutely Worst People in America.”

I expected to read about Jared Lee Loughner, the Tucson gunman who murdered six people and wounded 14 others, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, just over a year ago, or Seung-Hui Cho, the guy who killed 27 students and five teachers before killing himself on the campus of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, in April of 2007.

Timothy McVeigh

I thought I’d see Charles “Helter Skelter” Manson or Timothy McVeigh – the guy who bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City back in 1995, killing 165 people, including 19 children – mentioned, or maybe Casey Anthony, who some say murdered her two-year-old, Caylee, and got off scot-free.

Instead, the article featured a bunch of nameless fools who had posted vitriolic, racist status updates, presumably on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Most used the “N” word; all were cloaked in anonymity so readers couldn’t know who these losers are, under which rocks they live or how long they’ve been sharing air with the same African-Americans that they apparently despise.

Instead of educating folks about the crooks on Wall Street who’ve destroyed our economy or the unethical politicos in Washington who sent 1,140 American soldiers to their unnecessary deaths in Afghanistan and 4,414 in Iraq, Buzzfeed chose to reward a bunch of ignorant racists and elevate them to the Notably Bad Hall of Fame for typing a few noxious words in a social network.

Rather than reminding us that true evil exists among us, evil that’s manifested itself in the taking of innocent life, and encouraging us to hug our loves ones extra tight tonight, to cherish life and love and goodness, the website decided to shallowly repulse us for the sake of repulsion, to give us not helpful warnings or illuminating stories of good coming from bad but rather to prove that in today’s world, immature little jerks can post toxic slurs online and achieve a level of notoriety that they don’t deserve.

Anybody who thinks it’s funny or cool or edgy to type “Happy N*gg*r Day” in Facebook probably isn’t too distressed to learn that his or her photo has been included in an online list of asinine imbeciles.

Did we need another hard-hitting exposé like this in order to be convinced that prejudice against people of color is alive and well in this NASCAR-loving, Keystone-drinking, Confederate flag-waving, tabloid-reading, camouflage-wearing country of ours? All we need to do is pay attention to how little respect the 44th President of the United States receives in certain quarters to know that Dr. King’s dream of a beautiful symphony of brotherhood hasn’t yet come true.

Andrea Yates

Way to ignore Lee Harvey Oswald, Mark David Chapman and Andrea Yates, who drowned her five young children in Houston, Texas, back in June of 2001, Buzzfeed, while amplifying the six-word rants of attention-seeking morons for whom being featured in your article, albeit anonymously, is probably the biggest mark they’ll ever leave. Way to further blur the line between what’s noteworthy and provocative and what’s just stupid and banal.

You could have at least included the Republican presidential candidates.


Sources: Buzzfeed.com, New York Times, ABC News, CNN, Unknownnews.net.